It would appear that although the title of the thread is still strange the subject matter has changed. I'm back and ready to make a whole load of filters should it happen again. I've changed it again in the hope that most filters will not delete it without it being read.
Photographers don't usually hand over the negatives after they have completed an ordinary job, like taking pictures of a wedding, or making studio portraits. They hang on to them and hope more prints will be ordered. I'm also willing to bet that if the client demanded the negatives there would be immediate disagreement about who owns them. I'm also sure that if it got to court, the client would win and get his negatives, unless there was some kind of prior agreement. But who would sign an agreement allowing a photographer to keep pictures of them? To what end? What possible reason, or excuse, can a photographer have for doing this if the matter came up? I'm quite sure most people would say no. And perhaps question the photographer's intentions. It's silly and in my opinion unethical to try to hold on to negatives that belong to someone else. If a client gets a load of prints made elsewhere that's too bad. But what a client cannot do is lay claim to the pictures. He cannot say he took them and if he does its time for litigation. But it can get very complicated. Copyright Law might look quite simple on paper, but specialist litigators make vast amounts of money when it comes to the application. When a client pays to have something - say products - photographed its very clear that everything to do with them, including the negatives, belong to him - not the picture taker. The copyright of printed matter, novels, biographies and such-like is a little more difficult. An author passes the copyright over to the publisher as part of a contract - usually. I didn't (don't) but such an agreement has to be negotiated. So anyone getting a photo book ready beware. It's best to retain the copyright oneself, if at all possible. But Daniel knows more about this stuff an I'm sure he'd have more useful comments than these. Dr E D F Williams http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams Author's Web Site and Photo Gallery Updated: March 30, 2002
